


Adventures in Writing

by Sarina_Argus



Category: Teen Titans - All Media Types, Titans (Comics)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:54:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23172775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarina_Argus/pseuds/Sarina_Argus
Summary: Toni gives Tara lessons in writing





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: First of a series born from a night when Sarina made the mistake of mixing yapping at TBoarder and taking Nyquil. Major Props to TBoarder for helping me come up with this then letting me run with it (he had one idea, I had another, I ignored him).

“‘And even though she'd never told me her name, that time we spent stuck in the elevator was the best 15 minutes of my life. The doors slid open, I sat on the floor, watching her ass as she walked away and knew she'd remember me like I remembered her... hot and horny...’“

Tara tossed the magazine on the pool deck. "Can you believe this? People actually believe this crap?"

Toni adjusted her glasses in the afternoon sun. "C'mon, Tara, don't tell me you actually bought that magazine for the articles."

Tara blushed. "Well... there are some good ones in here..."

Toni lowered her sunglasses and raised an eyebrow.

Tara shrugged. "Well ok. But still. I mean really, I could write better than this."

"So why don’t you?"

"Huh?"

Toni sat up. "Write one. You said you can do better, so write one."

Tara folded her arms across her chest. "Oh please."

"Really! I'll help." Toni jogged across the deck and returned with her pen and paper. Handing it to Tara, she settled into the chair again. "Go for it."

Tara stared at her a moment then reluctantly picked up the pen.

“‘Dear XXXtacy, I never thought I'd be writing to a magazine, least of all yours, but... I felt that I had to tell someone. It all started one night me  
and my best friend decided to go out dancing...”"

"No, no, no," Toni interjected quickly. "You have to add some spice to it. Talk about legs and tits and asses!"

"We're not even one sentence in! How can I talk about legs and butts so soon?"

"This isn't for a Pulitzer!" Toni grabbed the magazine and began to read dramatically. "'Her legs were the first thing I noticed as she walked in the room... She had an ass you could eat cake off of... I swear I'd dive into her tits if she asked me...' We're talking hormones, not grammar!"

Tara crumpled up another piece of paper. "Fine...” How 'bout 'I was wearing my tightest jeans that showed off my well toned legs and ass..' God this is so lame!"

"No one wears jeans in these letters." Toni adjusted her glasses. "Wear a skirt so short it let everyone know what color thong you were wearing."

"But I never wear skirts!!!"

"And you never spend your evenings barhopping, hitting on supermodels. Write!"

Tara stared at the page. "Good point... Okay," she said, reading as she wrote, "'My skirt was so short that everyone could see my bright red thong. My huge, firm breasts were nearly falling out of my top'... Okay, this is definitely fiction."

Toni shook her head again. "No one calls them breasts. Tits, jugs, anything but breasts." She tapped her drink straw against her lips for a few moments. "'I knew I looked good, in my tightest leather mini and a halter top that barely encased my perfect double D tits...'"

"Got it," Tara answered, scribbling furiously. "But is the measurement a must too?"

"It’s optional, but recommended. But if their smaller, they have to be pert and perky, if they're big they have to jiggle or bounce."

Tara stifled a giggle. ""Okay, so I've got Kory's tits, and Jesse's ass for this story so far..."

"And her legs too."

"Damn. And this is supposed to be real?" Toni just gave her a look. Tara sighed, "Fine. So I know what I look like. 'So me and my best friend-" 

Toni stopped her. "What best friend? What does she look like, do you sleep with her on occasion?"

"Geez, why does it matter?" Toni gave her that look again. Tara shook her head. "Fine. 'My best friend Jenny was her usual gorgeous self, and she's always so outgoing, no one would guess she was a virgin...”"

"Virgin?" Toni was stunned.

Tara looked sheepish. "I thought the virgin best friend was standard in this stuff."

Toni shook her head. "Nope. Bar humps, Elevator hos, none of them are virgins. Beach chicks, hotel room girls and best friends, virginal, but rarely is there a 'real' virgin in these stories."

"Sheesh, this is harder than I thought." Tara scribbled again. "She was her usual gorgeous self in her little red dress and heels, but I knew I could hold my own tonight." She sat thinking again. "Then what?"

Toni answered, "So who's getting laid? You? Your girlfriend? You doing each other?"

"Um...”" Tara stared at the page again. "I don't know. A threesome?"

Toni shook her head again. "Uh-uh."

"Why not?"

"Have you ever had one?"

"Well, no...”"

"Then you'll never understand." Toni shook her head. "No threesome."

"Good grief, why don't you write this thing?"

Toni shook her head. "No, this was your idea, I'll just yell when you're screwing up."

"Fine." Tara thought a bit. "Then can my friend watch?"

"Sure." Toni sat back down and grabbed her drink. "Who is she watching? Where's the woman?"

Tara thought for a bit then started writing. "'Then Tanya came in. She turned to me and flashed that million dollar smile and I was wet. Totally wet.'" Tara stared at the page again. "Ok they meet, I look good, she looks good, we boff in the bathroom-"

"Fuck in the bathroom."

"Excuse me?"

Toni gave her yet another look. "You don't say 'tits' and 'ass' then finish it with 'boffing' in the bathroom. And before you ask, you 'cum,' you don't orgasm."

Tara crumpled up her page. "I give up. Writing is hard enough, but this is ridiculous."

Toni grinned. "Chicken."

Tara growled at her. "I'd like to see you do better."

"I already have." Toni stood up and handed her the magazine.

Tara's jaw dropped. "Where?"

Toni opened to the letters. "You tell me," she answered with a smile. She laughed as she walked back into the house.

Tara stared after her. "Yeah right...” She never...”" Glancing again at the page, she settled back into her deck chair and started reading again.

Rule Number 1: Read


	2. Adventures in Writing :  Write

Tara slammed her head into the keyboard for the fourth time. "This is hopeless!"

"What’s hopeless?" Kyle asked, glancing up from his drawing board.

"Stupid Toni and her stupid bet, with her stupid "you’re so smart, you write it’ neh-neh- neh, I swear I’ll CHOKE her the next time I see her!" She slammed her laptop shut with an ominous crack.

"You lost me at the neh-nehs," Kyle answered.

Tara turned in her chair. "Kyle, you do the comic thing, so you kinda write… How do you do it?"

Kyle chuckled. "How do I write?"

"Yeah."

"I just do." He turned his attention back to his table. 

Tara sighed. "But how? I mean, how do you decide this is good, this sucks, I can’t even think about how bad this is. How do you do it?"

Kyle put his pencil down. "I just write." At her frustrated look, he pointed to the bookcase. "Go get a piece of paper and a pencil."

She gave him a disbelieving look, but complied. "I suppose you want me to write my name and home room at the top?"

"No," he grinned, "but there will be a test on this later." At her snort, he continued. "What are you writing about?" 

"Sex."

Kyle blinked a few times. "Oh-kay… that’s a pretty big topic."

Tara raised an eyebrow at him. "I’m writing about my one-night shag with this woman I met in a bar."

Kyle coughed this time. "So you’re writing from experience…"

"Nah, I’m making it up as I go along. I mean I’ve read all the letter columns from Playmate and Juggies, but I can’t get my stuff to look anything like theirs."

Kyle shook his head. "Let me get this straight. You’re writing about an experience you haven’t had for a magazine that isn’t known for outstanding literary content, and you can’t get your stuff to look as horrible and unbelievable as theirs."

Tara nodded. 

Kyle shook his head again. "What are you writing, a letter?" 

‘Yeah."

"And do you have a basic idea of what’s supposed to be happening?

"Yeah."

"Then start writing it." At her hesitation, Kyle tapped on the blank page. "C’mon. ‘Dear Playhouse.."

"But it’s just gonna sound lame."

"So? Write!"

"Shouldn’t I be using my word processor?"

"Some people do better writing on real paper for first drafts."

"What if I screw up?"

"That’s why God created erasers."

"But you don’t understand…"

Kyle turned the chair around and took his seat. "The hardest part is actually getting started. Just write something. You have an idea, put it down. It doesn’t have to be perfect or even good. Just write, dammit."

"And if it sucks?" 

"Fix it later. Just get started writing. Don’t care about if it’s spelled correctly or if the sentences sound funky, just get your complete idea on the page. You can pretty it up later. Just start writing."

"And if I get stuck?"

"Keep writing the last sentence over and over again. I do that and get so sick of seeing the same thing I come up with something else."

She eyed him, then turned her attention to the paper. "Dear Playhouse, you’ll never believe what happened to me last weekend…" Looking up, she noticed him watching her intently. "I could probably do this easier if you weren’t staring at me."

Kyle grinned and stood up. "Don’t expect it to be perfect the first time around. It never is and it never will be. Just write, start to finish, and sweat the little stuff afterwards.’

"Yes, Yoda…" she answered, her pencil scratching away at the page.

Settling back behind his drawing board, he picked up his own pencil. Then he noticed her scrutinizing what she’d put to page. 

Tara found her on the receiving end of a wad of paper. 

"WRITE!"

Rule number 2: Write, dammit!


	3. Adventures in Writing: Betas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Learning to appreciate a Beta Reader

Four painful days. Four painful stress-filled days of writing and rewriting, but it was done. Tara printed out her story and shook the papers in Toni's face.

"Hah, it's done, and as good as gone…" she teased.

"First draft?" Toni asked, setting aside the book she'd been reading.

"Whaddayamean first draft?"

Toni snatched the papers out of Tara's hands. "First draft, meaning it needs editing."

"It's done and it's great!" Tara grumped. "Why would it need editing?"

"Because you wrote it, you're probably sick of looking at it and you need someone that's not gonna blow smoke up your skirt and tell you it's fabulous when it sucks." Toni started reading and immediately reached for a pen.

"Look, you were the one who said I'm not going for a Pulitzer or whatever; I'm just sending an unbelievable story to a magazine that is famous for printing them." Tara flopped into her chair and pouted.

"Just because it's only for Playmate magazine, doesn't mean it can't still be good. You don't want people to associate your name with crap writing, right?" She made another note on the draft.

After a few minutes, Toni handed her papers back. "Here, see? That wasn't too bad. And look, you only have to fix like half of it."

"Whaddaya mean, half of it?" Tara started rereading her story.

"Spelling, formatting, body manipulation. Face it Tara, not everyone is as flexible as Plasticman, or Nightwing…"

"Unfortunately. " After a moment, Tara asked, "So I fix this and it's good to go?"

"Maybe. You may wanna have someone else look it over too." Toni went back to her book.

"Someone else? Why can't you read it again?"

Toni sighed. "Because you want fresh eyes to look at it and give you an honest opinion. And who says I'm not gonna read it again?"

"An honest opinion… Like who'd want to read this?"

Toni turned the page. "Send it to Oracle. She's good at editing."

"How would you know?"

"She reads my stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Stuff…" Toni turned her attention back to her book. Tara stared at her for a moment, then at her now marked up pages, and sighed. She went to the computer to compose an email. "Hey Oracle…"

Rule #3: Get a beta reader or two. AND USE THEM.


	4. Adventures in Writing 4:  Moving On

"So what if I change this here, and make them do it on the beach instead of the bathroom? That would be better, right?"

"Why do you want to make them do it on the beach instead of the bathroom?"

"Because it's more romantic."

"It's a bar-hump; they're not supposed to be romantic."

"But what if I want it to be romantic?"

"Then write a different story! Oracle said it's fine, I think it's fine, it's fine already!"

…

…

"What if she was a foreign exchange student instead of a super-model…"

Tara barely avoided the pillow sailing past her head.

Rule #4: Know when to stop editing.


End file.
